Persistence

Chapter 6

“Ouch…” Emma muttered under her breath.

“Watch it.” Aiden glared at the man helping Emma up onto the table where she was about to be given her X-ray.

“I’m just doing my job, sir…” the man spat back at him.

“She’s my fiancée you-!”Aiden began yelling at the man.

“Aiden, I’m begging you. Calm down.” She interrupted him and squeezed his hand after looking up at him and smiling to reassure him.

Aiden’s cell phone rang right to distract him from conjuring up yet another rejection to leaving her side for even a second.

The man helping Emma smiled crookedly and said “Sorry sir, no cell phones allowed. You’ll have to take it outside.”

Aiden checked the caller I.D. on his cell phone. It was Todd. He figured he might as well take it now.

He glared at the man holding Emma’s fragile body in his arms.

His eyes softened as he looked at his fiancée and said, “I’ll be right back. I promise.”

“Finally…” the man muttered under his breath as he gently set Emma down on the table she would soon be getting an X-ray on.

Emma rolled her eyes and watched Aiden leave through the cold hospital room doors.

Aiden walked through the lobby and out the doors to sit down on a bench just outside the front entrance and answer his phone.

“Hey”

“Hey, how’s Rory holdin’ up?”

“I don’t know yet, they’re giving her an X-ray right now. God, the people that work here are fucking idiots. You know what the asshole taking her-” the anger was increasingly showing in his tone of voice.

“Chill. What’d he do? Touch her? He’s just doing his job, man.”

“Yea, yea, yea”

“You want me to come get you or something? You know…to distract you. Maybe you can calm down…”

Aiden’s phone began to beep, telling him there was yet another person keeping him out of the room where Emma was. Great.

“Hang on, I got another call.” Aiden said, irritated.

“Okay”

He clicked his phone to receive the other call, not looking at the caller I.D.

“Hello?”

“Oh good I caught you.”

“Mom?!”

“Well, of course dear. Don’t you recognize my voice by now? It’s a little ridiculous to even ask me, Aiden. You know Megan Nelson’s son started ignoring her after he moved out and look what happened to him! You don’t want to work at Jiffy Lube you’re whole life, do you? Aiden are you listening to me? Aiden!”

“Yes, mother I’m listening…sadly.”

“Well, I saw that girl of yours on the news again.”

Aiden hung his head and rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Look, mom, I don’t have time for this. I have to go.” He hung up the call from his mother and switched back to Todd’s call.

“Hey, sorry it was my mother. I got rid of her though. What were we talking about?”

Only some crackling and a click were all that were heard before the dial tone.

Whatever. Aiden thought to himself as he slid his phone back in his pocket and proceeded to return to his frail fiancée.

But, not everything was accounted for back at the Morrow house. Behind the glass wall of the house something sinister was about to come into play. An unwelcome visitor was awaiting the couple’s return when an unexpected guest arrived. A black BMW x6 pulled up in the stone driveway. A strappy black heel slipped out the driver seat door as a medium height blonde spoke in a very irritated manner.

“Babe, I told you. I’m already at the house. What the hell are you doing that’s taking so long?”

“I’ll be there in a second.” A man replied on the other side of the phone.

“Well hurry up. I miss you.” She smiled as she climbed out of her car all the way revealing her skimpy black dress to Scott who was keeping hidden in the nearby forest.

“I miss you too, but I have to go. I’ll be there in about ten minutes okay?”

The woman made a sort of pouting face much like you would see a two year old make when it did not get a toy or was told it was not going to be allowed to spend the night at a friend’s house, but finally managed to reply by saying,” Fine. I’ll wait.” and sighed as she leaned against the car.

As we all know, love is one of those complicated and irritatingly difficult feelings to describe. Some men think they are falling in love when all they really want is sex or hell, even a one night stand. However, not all hope is not on this matter. There are still the very few men out there who prove themselves actual men by being, what seems to us now, almost perfect. But do not be fooled, these men can make disastrous mistakes that can ruin said manhood.

On the brink of unending and seemingly unreal happiness, Rory and Todd were interrupted from their almost start at yet another round of “extreme joy” by a phone call.

“I swear to god. I’m going to break your phone into little tiny bits and burn the pieces.”

Rory spat, angered at the unwanted postponement of the situation.

“Five minutes.” Todd pleaded.

Rory only glared thinking to herself Right. Like this is really only going to take five minutes.

Todd lifted himself from off his wife’s petite body carefully and smiled as he eased himself off the bed. There was still a robe on the ground from earlier that day, so he grabbed it and threw it on before answering his phone.

“Hello?” Todd said gazing at his wife who was still glaring and laughed a little in his voice.

It was Aiden.

“Hey, I have to, uh, go to work. Can you come down here and stay with Emma ‘till I get back? I don’t want to leave her alone, and my boss will fire me if I don’t show up in 10 minutes or less.” Aiden replied nervously.

“Yeah, sure thing. I’m on my way”

“Thanks, man. I owe you one.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll be there in about five minutes. You can leave now so you wont be late. I’ll be there soon enough. She’ll be fine” Todd’s voice was purposefully comforting in tone to calm Aiden down.

“Thanks.”

“Alright, Get lost, kid.” Todd said jokingly.

Aiden laughed and said,”Bye.” And proceeded to hang up.

Todd turned toward Rory and grabbed the clothing off the floor that he had been wearing that morning and began to dress as he started to explain.

“Todd has to go to work for a bit, so I’m going down to the hospital to make sure Emma’s not lonely. Well, basically I have babysitting duty for an hour on a grown woman, but you get what I mean, right?”

Rory sighed. “I guess.”

She sat up and leaned over to kiss her husband before he headed for the door since he was now fully dressed in his casual outfit of jeans and a company logo t-shirt from work.

“Call me when you’re heading back”

“I will.” He smiled and kissed his wife back.

“Promise?”

“Of course, anything for you my lady.”

He bowed jokingly and Rory laughed.

“Love you”

“I love you too!” Todd shouted as he grabbed the car keys off the table and headed for the door.. He crept through the tall oak front door of his house quite easily and began walking toward his car. He started the engine of his simple commuter car and headed for the hospital.

Scott had decided to leave the Morrow house in search for another person while Aiden went back into the hospital to talk to Emma. He passed back through the lobby doors and back to the room where Emma had been. She wasn’t there, so Aiden assumed she was done with the X-ray and had been taken back to her room. He climbed up the stairs and reached her hospital room where the nurse was telling her something he didn’t listen well enough to figure out.

“Could we…have a minute?” he said looking at the nurse.

“Sure” she smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her as sought to give a glimpse of some privacy to the couple.

Aiden sat down by Emma’s bedside and it made Emma smile so wide that he was back right her side, exactly where he belonged.

“Well, hi there, sexy. What’s your name?” She laughed.

He smiled and said,” Babe, I have to go to work. My boss is pissed at me for being gone so much. I’ll only be an hour tops I promise.”

The smile on her face deepened into a frown. “Oh…”

“I’m sorry, honey. I’ll be back as soon as I can, and Todd’s coming over right now so you won’t be alone. Okay?”

“Alright…I guess. I just would rather it was you instead of Todd.” She pouted slightly.

“One hour.” He smiled and kissed her on the forehead before he left and ran his hand down her cheek.

She grabbed his hand as he was letting it slip slowly away from her soft face.

“I love you” she stated as she stared into his deep reassuring blue eyes.

“I love you too, Em.” He smiled and placed her hand on the bed as he turned to exit.

He was almost to the end of the hallway when he saw Todd coming towards him heading to Emma’s room as promised.

“Hey!” Todd yelled.

“Hey, man I have to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Aiden looked nervous and it was easily shown to Todd in his voice and his awkwardly paced walk.

“Okay. Don’t have too much fun.” He laughed crookedly.

Aiden laughed and walked quickly to the front entrance doors and headed for his car to leave.

He was so nervous about what he was now going to go do that he was shaking. He fumbled with his keys for almost two full minutes until he finally managed to get his car key in his hand and unlock the door to get in. He climbed in, started the car, and took a long, deep breath to attempt to calm himself.

He backed out of the parking space, almost hitting another car that hadn’t seen him and was coming through the parking lot aisle in the incorrect direction, but then proceeded to drive away and begin his journey hastily.

“Wow, you look like hell, Em.” Todd said entering the small hospital room where Emma was and smiled jokingly.

“Why thank you.” She laughed in reply.

The smile remained on her face while Todd found his way to the chair next to Emma’s hospital bed.

“Anytime,” he smiled, “so how are you feeling? I heard you took a pretty bad hit this round.”

“I feel about as great as I look.” Todd’s smile faded quickly as these words.

She continued,” but I’m begging you, don’t tell Aiden. He’s freaking out enough as it is already. God, he almost killed the guy helping me into the X-ray room.” She pleaded.

“You act as if I don’t know Aid.” He smiled again.

She laughed.

“I know, but he just gets so worried and stressed. He’s going to get fired sooner or later if he keeps it up, but he loves his job. I can’t do that to him. You get what I mean?”

“Yeah, I understand, Em.”

Todd leaned his arm on the edge of the hospital bed and rested his head on his elbow.

He sighed and said,” Well…what now?”

“I don’t know. Sorry you got stuck with the babysitting gig. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” He smiled again.

Todd was always a very nice man; Rory was an extremely lucky woman and Emma had always been happy for them in their relationship’s ups and downs. His soft green eyes never ceased to have this indescribable reassurance in them. The occasional slightly amusing hair flip he did was a result of his shaggy hair, but Rory just thought it was cute.

Finally reaching his destination, Aiden pulled up to his house and cut the engine of his car. He pulled the keys out of the ignition and glanced up at the beginning of the driveway and smiled as he saw the woman standing about ten feet away from his car. He climbed out of the car and closed the door behind him as he dropped his keys slipped out of his hand and ran towards her at full speed. She smiled very widely and turned to face him with her arms wide open to welcome him into her arms. He scooped her up in his arms and swung her around. Her smile widened yet again and she kissed him.

“Well hello there stranger.” He said smiling.

“It’s been way too long. It’s hard being away from you for more than twenty four hours” She ran her fingers through his hair roughly and leaned against his well built chest.